Cindy Leslie

U.S.S. Yosemite, 1974-1978.

So jealous.  My dream is to have enough money and time (after I win the lottery) to do a 7 day Park trip and when I'm sad at leaving, go on a 3 day Disney cruise!  Jane

It’s a shame you didn’t look at this Blog prior to attempting to make your reservations. The advice and suggestions here are spot on and would have provided you with words of wisdom and guidance in booking your first cruise! Now, you have a bad impression of RCL and cruises altogether, which is a real shame. Cruising is awesome and RCL surely delivers! We always use a travel agent, at no cost to us, to handle everything! Takes away any chance of confusion or possible stress. Hopefully, you can get everything sorted out and go on your first cruise! I’m sure you would enjoy it. And if you don’t, I’m sorry.

You've got it backwards. You get a discount for allowing RC to choose your room.
As for "needing to pay more", this is no different than if you book an airline flight and select a seat with extra leg room or an emergency exit row seat. Preferred room options come with a higher cost. 
In your original post, you wrote in big, bold letters "assuming this meant", so yes, you did assume.
I understand this isn't your first foray into travel, but cruise vacations are different from land vacations. I'm not sure why you did not stop when you reached the point of not seeing the options you expected and completed the booking.  
I'm sorry your first experience was not to your liking, but I think your experience and/or expectations were out line with pretty much everyone else here. If you think you've discovered some vast conspiracy by Royal Caribbean to dupe their customers, well, I'm sorry to say that simply is not the case.  Reading your experiences speaks to a first time cruiser who made assumptions and ended up with a different result than they expected. 
My advice going forward is to give RC another try, but employ some of the advice and strategies we all happily share.  I think with a bit more footwork, you could easily come away with a great cruise vacation.

"Assuming" is the key word here. You assumed, instead of verifying. This is a classic example of why working with a travel agent, and NOT booking on your own (especially for first timers) is so important.
There is no bait and switch, just a consumer who didn't do their homework, guessed at what things ought to be, and was disappointed in the outcome.

It’s a shame you didn’t look at this Blog prior to attempting to make your reservations. The advice and suggestions here are spot on and would have provided you with words of wisdom and guidance in booking your first cruise! Now, you have a bad impression of RCL and cruises altogether, which is a real shame. Cruising is awesome and RCL surely delivers! We always use a travel agent, at no cost to us, to handle everything! Takes away any chance of confusion or possible stress. Hopefully, you can get everything sorted out and go on your first cruise! I’m sure you would enjoy it. And if you don’t, I’m sorry.

It’s a shame you didn’t look at this Blog prior to attempting to make your reservations. The advice and suggestions here are spot on and would have provided you with words of wisdom and guidance in booking your first cruise! Now, you have a bad impression of RCL and cruises altogether, which is a real shame. Cruising is awesome and RCL surely delivers! We always use a travel agent, at no cost to us, to handle everything! Takes away any chance of confusion or possible stress. Hopefully, you can get everything sorted out and go on your first cruise! I’m sure you would enjoy it. And if you don’t, I’m sorry.

It’s a shame you didn’t look at this Blog prior to attempting to make your reservations. The advice and suggestions here are spot on and would have provided you with words of wisdom and guidance in booking your first cruise! Now, you have a bad impression of RCL and cruises altogether, which is a real shame. Cruising is awesome and RCL surely delivers! We always use a travel agent, at no cost to us, to handle everything! Takes away any chance of confusion or possible stress. Hopefully, you can get everything sorted out and go on your first cruise! I’m sure you would enjoy it. And if you don’t, I’m sorry.

It’s a shame you didn’t look at this Blog prior to attempting to make your reservations. The advice and suggestions here are spot on and would have provided you with words of wisdom and guidance in booking your first cruise! Now, you have a bad impression of RCL and cruises altogether, which is a real shame. Cruising is awesome and RCL surely delivers! We always use a travel agent, at no cost to us, to handle everything! Takes away any chance of confusion or possible stress. Hopefully, you can get everything sorted out and go on your first cruise! I’m sure you would enjoy it. And if you don’t, I’m sorry.

It’s a shame you didn’t look at this Blog prior to attempting to make your reservations. The advice and suggestions here are spot on and would have provided you with words of wisdom and guidance in booking your first cruise! Now, you have a bad impression of RCL and cruises altogether, which is a real shame. Cruising is awesome and RCL surely delivers! We always use a travel agent, at no cost to us, to handle everything! Takes away any chance of confusion or possible stress. Hopefully, you can get everything sorted out and go on your first cruise! I’m sure you would enjoy it. And if you don’t, I’m sorry.

It’s a shame you didn’t look at this Blog prior to attempting to make your reservations. The advice and suggestions here are spot on and would have provided you with words of wisdom and guidance in booking your first cruise! Now, you have a bad impression of RCL and cruises altogether, which is a real shame. Cruising is awesome and RCL surely delivers! We always use a travel agent, at no cost to us, to handle everything! Takes away any chance of confusion or possible stress. Hopefully, you can get everything sorted out and go on your first cruise! I’m sure you would enjoy it. And if you don’t, I’m sorry.

It’s a shame you didn’t look at this Blog prior to attempting to make your reservations. The advice and suggestions here are spot on and would have provided you with words of wisdom and guidance in booking your first cruise! Now, you have a bad impression of RCL and cruises altogether, which is a real shame. Cruising is awesome and RCL surely delivers! We always use a travel agent, at no cost to us, to handle everything! Takes away any chance of confusion or possible stress. Hopefully, you can get everything sorted out and go on your first cruise! I’m sure you would enjoy it. And if you don’t, I’m sorry.

There is a reason that many of us use travel agents to book with Royal. They then have to deal with the website and customer service phone nonsense and all the stress and headaches that come with it. I think it was less a bait and switch scam and more just a website glitch and a customer service agent who just couldn’t comprehend that and/or didn’t believe you for some reason (but still very annoying and I understand your frustration!) If you are willing to give Royal another try, I would try having a travel agent rebook it so that they can navigate that for you. The nice thing is that they come with lots of knowledge and experience and it costs you nothing extra. They get paid by Royal so it’s a win/win. 

Good to hear.. thanks ?

We did it a couple years ago while on the Regal Princess. The party boat picked us up, then picked up passengers from a Royal Caribbean ship (possibly Oasis). Punch was complimentary, but could buy shots to put in your punch...we ended up buying wristbands so the rum was unlimited! We had lots of fun on this excursion! Beach was beautiful, too!

That’s the plan! ❤️???

Thank you so much! Have an amazing time next month!

I thoroughly enjoyed your Blog! We sail on the Allure July 7-14, 2019 and are so excited! Have never been on a ship this big. In fact, the last time I cruised on Royal Caribbean was on the Viking Serenade when my now grown children (32 and 30) were toddlers. We went to Disneyland first then my hubby took the kids home and I cruised with my mom and sisters! Good times were had! This time it’s myself, my sister-in-law, my daughter and my son-in-law! More good times will be had! Thanks again for sharing...can’t wait to get on that big ship and enjoy all it has to offer! Thanks again for your thoughts, comments, insight and all your beautiful photos!

Keep in mind changing ports at the last minute is no easy task. They cannot just go anywhere they want. Every port has a cost to go there, not to mention port calls are usually scheduled years in advance because space is quite limited. Unfortunately, given the extraordinary circumstances the cruise line is doing the best they can with the limited options they have.
You should also know you can cancel with no penalty if the revised sailing is not to your liking.

First I'm sorry you had a poor experience.  I would agree with an earlier comment that a 3 or 4 day cruise can be a different experience than a 7 day cruise.  Also we have found the date of the cruise can make a difference.  Going at Spring break vs a time when more kids are in school comes to mind.  I'm not saying one over the other is good or bad but individual cruises can take on a personality so to speak.  Maybe this will help if you plan another cruise.
I'm in the service industry so maybe I view the "sales" deals a little different.  I think wait staff are professionals that are working hard to be promoted from say Windjammer thru MDR to a specialty restaurant.  I know we have had waiters that were with us in the MDR who later were with us in a specialty.  Anyway I think in addition to working hard at my venue I also have to cover shortages such as busy days in the MDR, and I have to make sales pitches to guest throughout the ship.  So with that in mind I try to smile and engage them with a little friendly conversation.  I can end it any time with a statement that I'm not interested.  On our last cruise we were approached by a waiter with the sales pitch for a dining package.  During the cruise we decided to splurge on a dinner at a specialty restaurant and sure enough the guy turned out to be our waiter.  Not only did he recognize us but he made sure everything was fabulous.
We've never received a response on the company survey either.  My guess is RCL has a variety of sources it uses to gauge how effective they are being.  I think they are very good at recognizing trends based on the ships and services they bring to the market.  
Finally I would offer that certainly cruising has changed in the last 10 years.  All entertainment is constantly looking at their product.  I think back to the all you can eat buffet that you used to see in Vegas. Those have largely been replaced as consumers have spoken with the pocket book saying they is what I like now.  We cruise because the whole package seems to be a good value for us.  Meals are not 5 star but are usually very good.  Our room moves us each  evening to a new location so I don't have to repack.  We get to see great locations while being pampered by some very hardworking folks.  Ok enough of my owns sales pitch.  I hope you try another cruise again and you have the time of your life.

Im from the Detroit area in Michigan. Winters here suck, summers here aren't great unless you go up north to see Michigan’s true beauty. I’d take a bad day in St “whatever island” over the greatest day here! ?

I actually just called and cancelled.  It was very easy and took less than 5 minutes!  That will teach me to book after a glass of wine!

On second thought, I'd call the travel agent and let them know what happened and then transfer the wrong booking to them and let them deal with cancel and booking again. That frees you up to spend more time on these boards!

Yaaaay! I’m so happy you are live-blogging this! Hopefully this will help soften my post cruise withdrawal symptoms. 

Following along! Have a wonderful time! ❤️??